You people need to go back to school...

[thistlechaser]

I'm torn between facepalming and wanting to shoot people. A story from Time: Eating candy as a child will make you into a criminal!

"Moore's analysis suggests a correlation: 69% of people who had been convicted of a violent act by age 34 reported eating candy almost every day as youngsters"

Correlation does not imply causation!

*pulls hair out*

Idiots! Gah! Look, I can do this "scientific research", too! Here are my findings: "100% of people who get cancer drank water at some point in their lives". Oh my god, water causes cancer!

Grrrrrrrrr.

Comments

[citizenbleys.livejournal.com]

Correlation = causation is far from the most annoying-but-frequently-sighted logical fallacy. Sometimes I shave my head to remove the temptation to tear my hair out because of how often I encounter post hoc ergo propter hoc, which is not only a fallacy so well known it has a name, but one that has been thus known long enough that said name is in latin. It doesn't stop people from using it all of the time.

I usually respond with a combination of reductio ad absurdum and Godwin's Law.: "I had eggs for breakfast today. Seventy years prior to that, the Nazis invaded Poland. Therefore, my choice of breakfast was informed by the actions of Adolf Hitler. I must be a Nazi."

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Gah! I learned things in English class after all, I recognized post hoc ergo propter hoc. But then again, I guess that says something else if what I remember from English class is Latin...

[citizenbleys.livejournal.com]

Recognition of logical fallacies is a great boon when attempting to communicate in any language, English included, on account of the fact that such fallacies are an impediment to communication.

EDIT: And on the next day, it hits me that "correlation = causation" is a form of post hoc. Drat.